Sophie Turner and Emilia Clarke Return to Belfast for Season 8 Filming

Filming season is upon us, and the Game of Thrones sightings are coming fast and furious these days. As reported earlier this week, Kit Harington, Liam Cunningham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Gwendoline Christie and more stars of the show were spotted on their way to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and out in the city that serves as GoT’s home base. Just a few days on, and we have more sightings to report including important ones – Sophie Turner has returned, and Emilia Clarke is also reported to be back in town for season 8 filming.

It’s been a busy week for Turner; along with her Thrones duties, the actress’ engagement to Joe Jonas made headlines recently. She was seen out shopping with her fiance in Belfast this week, and she posed for this new pic (no, that’s not Joe Jonas):

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In the above Instagram set, you can see that Ben Crompton (Dolorous Edd) is also present, posing with fans, so hopefully we’ll see some exciting action at the Wall with Edd this year! Well, what’s left of the Wall anyway.

In other cast sightings, Kit Harington was seen at a restaurant in Belfast, on Monday night.

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Fans report seeing Emilia Clarke (Daenerys), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne) and Iain Glen (Jorah) arriving back in town Sunday, along with Harington. Quite the large group assembling for the first week of filming! With only one unit working on GoT now, and a smaller cast (courtesy of some wildfire and executions), we’re going to be seeing big scenes including a lot of the cast together.

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Reports this weekend say that Peter Dinklage has once again become a father, welcoming his second child with his wife Erica Schmidt. The actor must’ve hurried back to the US for the occasion, as a WotW source reports that they spotted Peter Dinklage and Hafþór “The Mountain” Björnsson in Belfast last week. (Thor doesn’t seem to be in Belfast now, based on his Instagram.) Ideally, Dinklage has some time off to enjoy his new bundle of joy before hurrying back to the set!

You gotta love these exciting days of the filming season. Bless the mighty pink GOT signs, ubiquitous in Belfast every year! They’re baaaaaaaack:

It would be a hoot to see him become the default candidate for the Iron Throne (presuming there still is one) because all the more obvious candidates either die or opt out. It would be worth it just to see his why-does-stuff-like-this-always-happen-to-me expression.

I think Dany will try to be friendly to Sansa at first because she’s her new boyfriend’s sis. Of course that may not last, especially once the bombshell drops about Jon’s Targaryen lineage. I’m interested in how they’ll approach the personal dynamics between Dany and all the Stark siblings tbh. Initial civility but with underlying suspicion?

No,enough with the bullshit fake conflicts,we had enough of them last season,that’s not to say they will be best friends but there’s no time or space for another conflict that won’t lead to anything especially when there’s an apocalypse coming .

No,enough with the bullshit fake conflicts,we had enough of them last season,that’s not to say they will be best friends but there’s no time or space for another conflict that won’t lead to anything especially when there’s an apocalypse coming .

I’m not sure it’s fake conflict, Dany should not be welcome in the North given the past history and she’s essentially a foreign invader. Whilst it may not lead to violence it’s certainly in line with the narrative so far.

I don’t visualize much of interest happening in any interaction between Dany and Sansa, but Dany and Arya might be fun to watch unfold. I imagine that at first Arya would be inclined toward hero worship, associating Dany with her historical heroine Nymeria, but that she would quickly become skeptical of Dany’s ‘entitled’ airs. Hearing ‘I will take what is mine with fire and blood!’ one time too many might even help disenchant Arya with her assassin career. At the very least I would hope to see a bit of eye-rolling. (But maybe that’s just my own long-ago loss of sympathy for Dany showing.)

Whatever the Stark sisters’ thoughts on Northern independence, they effectively agreed to go along with Jon’s decision in 707.

As far as what they ‘d think on Dany herself as a leader, based on the characterizations thus far they’d both be much more supportive of many of her decisions than her own advisors have been. TV Sansa and Arya would have given the enthusiastic thumbs up to the Tarly BBQ, whereas Tyrion and Varys did nothing but whine about it, and they’d have been on Dany’s side as far as going all fyah and blood on the enemy goes (well, strictly speaking, if Arya was there, she’d have volunteered to go put a dagger through Cersei’s heart and end the whole thing in a jiffy).

Hey, we’re on the same page! I definitely see Arya and Sansa united with Jon and supporting his decision. Maybe I’ll post my silly little fanfic scene, co-starring weasely Lord Glover. Because I figure some of those Northern Lords are going to dump on Jon as Robb 2.0: the King Who Lost the North over some “foreign whore.” (And this is before his true parentage is revealed; though if Bran and Sam think it through, they might conclude it’d be wiser to keep that a secret. )

Why would the Night King take his army halfway across the continent to take down a castle manned by fewer than 100 men? Why not make a beeline for the South, which is where the bulk of the population lives?

(This is a serious question, btw; I’m not trying to be combative. I know that on the Internets, sometimes things don’t come across as intended.)

Hi Wolfish, I fully agree with you from a logic perspective however my gut feeling is that we will see the White Walkers crushing some northern outposts before the main conflict with Team Targ starts. If I’m correct then this means Castle Black and the Last Hearth will both be over run in the first two episodes.

Lol. Right…like how she hated Lady Crane so much that she refused to kill her at the risk of her own safety. And doesn’t admire Brienne at all. And didn’t comfort the little dying girl at the HOB&W. Yup, ol Arya the woman-hater! 😊

Tywin: Harrenhal was built to withstand an attack from the land. A million men could have marched on these walls and a million men would have been repelled. But an attack from the air with dragon fire … . Harren and all his sons roasted alive within these walls. Aegon Targaryen changed the rules. That’s why every child alive still knows his name 300 years after his death.

Arya: Aegon and his sisters…It wasn’t just Aegon riding his dragon. It was Rhaenys and Visenya, too.

Tywin: Correct. A student of history, are you?

Arya: Rhaenys rode Meraxes. Visenya rode Vhagar.

Tywin: I’m sure I knew that when I was a boy.

Arya: Visenya Targaryen was a great warrior. She had a Valyrian steel sword she called Dark Sister.

Arya (blushing): “It’s just that….You’re even more awesome in person and now I can’t breathe! I’m so sorry! … I’m such a dork.”

Dany: “No, you’re cool as f*ck, my Princess…Hey, how’d you like to go dragon riding with me? Look at the world from high up in the sky. Maybe we’ll spot some ice zombies to flambe. I can show you how to do the Dracarys command….”